NOTES FOR VISITORS: Welcome to the Alaska Outdoors Supersite forums! The contents of our forums are viewable by anyone, and may be read by clicking the forum headings below. To post in the forums, you must register at THIS LINK. To upgrade or change your membership, please login and select Upgrade > Supporting Membership. Your account will now be managed separately from the forum system. Forum login is separate from account management but shares the same username and password.

IMPORTANT: If you cannot log-in, please reset your password using our new 6 character format through THIS LINK and click Forgot Password. An email message with a reset link will be sent to your email address.

The biggest sale in the history of our company! 40% off everything in the store. That's literally hundreds of books, maps and DVDs focused on Alaska hunting, fishing, and other outdoor topics! We're making a major change in the store, and we need to clear out all our inventory. This is the lowest price you've seen on these Alaska outdoor books, maps and DVDs. Take your time and look through our inventory, because once it's gone, it's gone! This sale is limited to the stock we have on the shelves. Everything is shipped USPS Priority, so if you order now, we can get it to you in time for Christmas. https://alaskaoutdoorssupersite.com/alaska-store/

First hunt success

Well, after a long deployment, I finally got the oppotunity to go hunting this morning, despite having to show up to work for about an hour and a half. I went to one of the lakes on base with just a few decoys and my pirogue. I got setup about 10 minutes prior to LST and was feeling optimistic, despite heavy fog. I knew I only had about 1 hour to hunt before I had to pack it in and go into work. Well, I saw probably a dozen or so birds, 2 came by right at LST and the fog obscured them enough to keep me from seing them til they were gone. Saw a nice sized flock of about 6-8 birds but the were too far out and then saw another 4 birds too far again before I started packing up.
After I finished up my litle bit of work I decided to head back out and see what I could manage. Got back to the lake around 1115 and started paddling to the far side of the lake. I could see birds swimming on the water earlier, but had no binos, so I brought them with me this time around. As I was paddling I could see a couple of birds all the way across the lake, but still to far away to make them out in the binos. I kept paddling, and the birds didn't seem to be in a hurry to get away so I would paddle little and them check them out with my binos. It was a pair and I could tell they were ducks, just unsure of the species. As I got closer, I decided I would take on if I got close enough. I thought it was a pair of hen canvasbacks, and I knew I am only allowed one. Well, I took my shot and and here you go. My first duck in AK and my first White Wing Scoter.

Yeah that's what I thought. So yes, my first sea duck as well. I couldn't really tell. Throught my binos the 2 I saw looked brown. I didn't see these flying, and when I shot the one, the other just dove and popped up about 75 yrds away. I didn't bother chasing it as I had no idea what it was.I did see a few more land on the lake before I left, but not close enought to shoot, and they were arriving solo, and usually just swimming into view.

Used to take allot of the white wings where I grew up hunting in the coastal creeks of northern California. Tasty birds! Gave up picking the feathers on these coarse birds and roasting them like puddle ducks, just skinned them and took all the good pieces of meat: breasts (of course!), thighs with the little kidney patch on the back attached, (forget the drum sticks on these birds, too stringy!), scapulas (make a cut down each side of the back bone then slide your finger under and towards the breast, freeing it with a knife cut near the neck), and the wing at the first wing joint (a slightly tough but tasty piece of the bird; don't try with false teeth!). Soak the pieces in the refrigerator overnight in your choice of spiced salt solutions, beer, or milk, roll in flour and salt and pepper and saute in melted butter, not so hot as to make the butter brown. Do not over cook!!, the breast should be rare inside. Pull the meat out of the pan, finish making the rue already started there, and make white gravy with pan scrapings to pour over the carved meat and potatoes you have made in the mean time. I could live on this stuff! Love the white winged scooters!
PS this recipe works on all divers, grouse, and even mud hens!
Jesse

Duckslayer56 might enjoy it on all the spoonies he busted this year...

Originally Posted by otterbfishin

Used to take allot of the white wings where I grew up hunting in the coastal creeks of northern California. Tasty birds! Gave up picking the feathers on these coarse birds and roasting them like puddle ducks, just skinned them and took all the good pieces of meat: breasts (of course!), thighs with the little kidney patch on the back attached, (forget the drum sticks on these birds, too stringy!), scapulas (make a cut down each side of the back bone then slide your finger under and towards the breast, freeing it with a knife cut near the neck), and the wing at the first wing joint (a slightly tough but tasty piece of the bird; don't try with false teeth!). Soak the pieces in the refrigerator overnight in your choice of spiced salt solutions, beer, or milk, roll in flour and salt and pepper and saute in melted butter, not so hot as to make the butter brown. Do not over cook!!, the breast should be rare inside. Pull the meat out of the pan, finish making the rue already started there, and make white gravy with pan scrapings to pour over the carved meat and potatoes you have made in the mean time. I could live on this stuff! Love the white winged scooters!
PS this recipe works on all divers, grouse, and even mud hens!
Jesse

That recipe sounds good, but looks like it takes the duck flavor away. I would rather just grill them, or put them in a pan of very hot olive oil, sear on one side, and flip it, sear on the other, put a little garlic salt and enjoy! I think the Wonnies Korean BBQ sauce goes really well on them as well. I will give your recipe a shot though, nothing like a new dish to make!

I'm making sausage out of some duck when I get back from Kodiak in couple weeks.

Some people call it sky busting... I call it optimism
"Swans are a gift" -DucksandDogs
I am a shoveler's worst nightmare!

if a person takes the duck flavor away what is the effin point. like duckslayer said grill or throw them in a pan for just a bit add a tiny bit of seasoning and call it guacamole!!!! no marinating for numerous hours or swamping the breast in bbq sauce. if you do that whats the point might as well go buy chicken.!

I will never be a "Prostaffer" its not that I am not good enough
but its because I refuse to pimp products for free.

Man.. I have never done anything other than either wrap them in bacon on the grill, deep fry with eggs and flour, or pan fry with butter then make gravy. I wouldnt know what to do if it didnt taste like duck..I have soaked them in milk overnight at times..but thats as far as I have gone. I really enjoy them stuck on a stick like a marshmellow over the fire out in the marsh..to me thats the best.

huntin dawg and bullelkklr, you are allowed to hunt waterfowl on base in areas where hunting is allowed. Shotguns are authorized as there are plenty of small game to hunt on base. Those flocks of geese that are on base are unfortunately not in a place where they can be hunted. Those recipes sound great. I will have to give them a try.

Duckslayer and all...Before you knock it, try it. Still tastes like duck, and tastes good at that. Don't do this with puddlers, just wrap in bacon and enjoy as said above, or pick the feathers off and roast in the oven with vegetables. Can't beat that, but when when it comes to divers and sea ducks, my family did not enjoy them, "just cooked". Thus we found a way to enjoy them. Sea ducks and divers were our major duck population. My family hunted and ate these birds on a regular basis over many years. Often we would see guys just tearing the breasts out and tossing the rest away. My brothers and I wanted to do this too but my dad would not allow this. What God gave us we will use, he used to say. This is why we would take all of the meat off the carcass rather than just tearing out the breast and feeling good about ourselves. The recipe above is a way to use all of the meat. Sure you can just tear the breast out of a sea duck or diver and grill it, and it's OK, a little tough but OK, but you have sacrificed the rest of the bird as garbage to rot. "You shot it, you eat it,” my dad told us. On my first dove hunt with my dad I mistook a meadow lark for a dove and my dad made me cook it and eat it. It wasn’t all that bad, but it was a lesson was learned. I do not throw away the meat that I kill; I find a way to use all of it. I'm sure that most of you do so too.
Jesse